During World War II consumption of fish rose in the US, not because Americans had acquired a new taste for seafood, but because meat producers were focused on the war effort. If You're Happy President Trump Tested Positive for COVID-19, You're Just as Bad as He Is, Former reality TV host tests positive for COVID-19, A Brief History of the 72 Hours Before President Trump Was Diagnosed With Covid-19, Report: Warner Bros. Games President Says Transphobe J. K. Rowling Has "The Right To Hold Her Opinions", Galarian Slowking Is One Messed Up Pokémon, Last Call: Remembering the golden age of fast food buffets. The entire story is told in the absolutely fantastic paper The Ocean’s Hot Dog: The Development of the Fish Stick by Paul R. Josephson. When Cartman begins taking half credit for th So what did the fishmongers do? Onboard processors eventually learned to trim fish into fillets and other useable cuts before freezing. Find the best & newest featured South Park GIFs. the most important election of our lifetime. Frozen blocks of fish required a series of processes to transform them into a saleable, palatable product. Cartman: Yeah.

The fish stick’s arrival and domination was truly remarkable. The product benefited tremendously from government subsidies for everything from purchasing freezer display cases for supermarkets to making sure that fish sticks were part of school lunch programs.

Buy for $60 from Best Buy. The Wall Street Journal called fish sticks “the first really new processing development in a quarter-century for one of the nation’s oldest industries” in 1954.
Sometimes we value efficiency in the name of feeding as many people as possible.

When the modern fish stick was invented in the 1950s, it was definitely for efficiency. The postwar years witnessed a rapid increase in the size of merchant marines in many countries, with these merchant fleets adopting new, almost rapacious catching methods and simultaneously installing massive refrigeration and processing facilities onboard huge trawlers. In fact, it might put you off fish sticks altogether if you’re the squeamish type, as he describes the various technological advances that had to occur after World War II to make fish sticks a reality (emphasis mine): These advances occurred in catching, freezing, processing, and transportation technologies. Matt, this article made me hungry. Instead of a Gorton’s fish stick I actually deep fry seasoned anchovies.

Note: Only personal attacks are removed, otherwise if it's just content you find offensive, you are free to browse other websites. And it wasn’t just marketing to consumers that made fish sticks take off. Sailors caught, beheaded, skinned, gutted, filleted, and then plate or block-froze large quantities of cod, pollock, haddock, and other fish—tens of thousands of pounds—and kept them from spoiling in huge freezing units. Jimmy works on writing jokes for his comedy routine while Cartman sits on his couch, eating potato chips. But after the war, the sale of fish declined and Americans went back to buying meat. . Matt Novak is the editor of Gizmodo's Paleofuture blog. Even companies that had nothing to do with fish sticks were hawking the product in one way or another. Other times we value quality ingredients in the name of nurturing the body or soul. For instance, in 1953 the head of Gorton’s advertising convinced the publishers of Parents magazine to give fish sticks a “seal of approval.” By 1955, sales of Gorton’s fish sticks were up 27 percent. G/O Media may get a commission. Browse and add captions to South Park Craig memes. They came up with a futuristic product that absolutely no one asked for and marketed the hell out of it: the fish stick. For those of us who grew up on them, it’s hard to think of a fish stick as the future. As a society, our relationship with food is in constant flux. Or anyone, for that matter, who ever ate a fish stick—whether you liked it or not. Jimmy: What are you, a gay fish? Today, as in the future, it’s New Departure for the finest in quality and engineering service.

Despite being for ball bearings, it associated itself with the futuristic idea of flash-freezing fish, and by extension the burgeoning fish stick market: From catch to “quick-freeze” in minutes .

For his paper Josephson gained access to the Gorton’s company archives. Because as we’ve seen here at Paleofuture time and again, advertisers love to be associated with anything that’s even vaguely associated with “the future.”. But rather than doing it in the name of feeding as many people as possible it was all sold as being the wave of “the future.”. And from the paper we get a glimpse into some of the marketing that made fish sticks a success. The Modern Mechanix blog has the ad that appears at the top of this post, which ran in the March 1956 issue of Scientific American magazine. And look for New Departure ball bearings, many self-sealed and lubricated-for-life, on the job. The textual content of this image is harassing me or someone I know The visual content of this image is harassing me or someone I know Both the textual and visual content are harassing me or someone I know Fish sticks had a largely retail success, however, because demand for them in schools and elsewhere waned as more manufacturers entered production and quality declined. Gorton’s, of course, is the company that’s probably best known for their yellow-hatted mascot; the fisherman who’s in your frozen food aisle hawking fish sticks and shrimp.

Everything you need to know and expect about. But with apologies to both trash and treasure, one man’s past is another man’s future. Once on shore, the subsequent attempt to separate whole pieces of fish from frozen blocks resulted in mangled, unappetizing chunks. Sort By: Hot New Top past 7 days Top past 30 days Top past year. For his paper Josephson gained access to the Gorton’s company archives. The title alone is wonderful, but the paper gives us a great look at how a food product can be created, marketed, and ultimately sold to American consumers even if those same consumers are tremendously skeptical that the product even qualifies as food. Cartman: Yeah. . Fish sticks had a largely retail success, however, because demand for them in schools and elsewhere waned as more manufacturers entered production and quality declined. Josephson’s description of how the fish stick first came to be isn’t very appetizing. The joke, which plays on the similarity of the phrases "fishsticks" and "fish dicks" when spoken, becomes a hit throughout South Park. Jimmy: Do you like putting fishsticks in your mouth? Don’t knock it till you try it. Processors considered these other cuts the “portion,” which found a home in institutional kitchens (schools, hospitals, factories, and restaurants).